Hey guys,
I know I don't post as often as I should and I'm sorry about that. To be honest most of the time when I feel I ought to be writing, my motivation fails me. I should have told you about the Amsterdam trip, and post photos (long story short, I suck at navigating around Amsterdam, Leonie Purchas is an awesome, emotive photographer and I found a super coffeehouse where I developed an afternoon long girl crush on the waitress).

So I feel a bit bad about asking this favour. Not bad enought not to ask, mind you...

Does anyone have any spare airmiles that they would be happy to relinquish?

Those of you who read britgeekgrrl may be able to guess why I'm asking.

To those of you who don't, she is my Evil Twin, closest thing to a sister I have, and her husband, Alex, has terminal cancer. When the horridly inevitable happens, I need to be able to fly out to be with her in San Francisco for the aftermath. At this point in time we don't know when that will be, which makes financial planning for it a little tricky.

This is a bit of a shot in the dark but I'm not above asking because, she's my Evil Twin and I love her to bits.

Thanks for having the patience to read this

MG
xxx

This is effin' genius. It has also been going through my head for OVER A WEEK, especially FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.

So here, I am, sharing the love...

I don't give a crap about whales so go and hug a tree

I don’t really drink coffee. I’m not a particular fan of global consumer mono-branded capitalism like McDonalds. And yet, the sight of a Starbucks mug fills me with pride and joy.

It’s a unique combination of solid working-class workmanship – this is a big chunky mug for drinking out of – and branded middle-class aspirations – I’m drinking in a funky trendy cafe.

One recently fell into my hands, and I’m very reluctant to let it go. It just sits there on my desk, and I feel a very odd sense of pride when I do end up drinking out of it. I’ve found myself making more cups of tea just so I can drink more out of it.

and what other chain can promote themselves on the basis of “Oooh, the red cups are back!” ?

Mirrored from almost witty.

Matt and I have both said that given the opportunity, yes we would sleep with Anglina Jolie, but we'd hate ourselves in the morning.

With that lapse of taste on both our parts, neither really can be jealous.

;)

Guys,

Kinder are running a UK face of Kinder promotion

http://www.faceofkinder.co.uk/

One of the entrants is Isla, 4, who has Downs

Wouldn't it be fab, if enough people voted for her and help change the perception of Disability in the UK?

You need to register to vote on the site, but you can vote once every day until the 14th November

thanks

Mg
xxx

Playing Lord of the Rings Online.

Just got to Rivendell, and the graphics/music are absolutely gorgeous.

Reassured that my geek quotient is still high, when I twittered this and initially typed "Imladris" instead of Rivendell, without thinking.

Am currently helping to reforge Narsil.

Geek joy! \o/

 Uni-Q is a new online show - best described as ‘Question Time’ meets ‘TFI Friday’ - providing a forum for 16-25 year olds to pose questions to MPs and other high profile figures. Created by a group of University of Hull politics graduates as a way to engage young people in politics, Uni-Q is the first programme of its kind to tour universities and colleges across the UK. And it's being backed by the Independent, which is nice.

The first edition include former Communities Secretary Hazel Blears in her first media appearance since her rather controversial departure from the government earlier in the year.

More on how to join in with future UniQ programmes here.

and it's all for a film about the Darfur massacre in Sudan. Seriously.

Silly reasons why I adore Matt, these are just examples from the last few days:

- When his old car, the Iron Frog failed its MOT and Faun was less than keen about the new one, he agreed that as its a silver Rover 25, and the start of its numberplate is DG51, we should call it K9. Despite the fact he's not a Who fan

- He's been making sure I take my cough medicine, indeed over the weekend he actually spooned it into my mouth

- Knowing when to stop with the glee as the wheels fall off Liverpool's season

- Sunday morning wakeups, on a Tuesday morning ;)

- Sending me a txt just now to remind me its film club and he and Faun won't be back until after 5

And yes, it may seem like trivia and I'm sure it is. But it just reminds me over and over again, that I am a very lucky duck.

 You wouldn't believe the tension, the bitching, the glee and the misery as I unveil the top ten most read bloggers on the Independent for last month. And you'd be right to, because it wouldn't be true - but our bloggers pay more heed to this than they would admit.

The Evening Standard carries a story about a black couple, outraged that their waitress scribbled ‘black couple’ on their bill, when they were the only couple dining.

The thing is, I’ve kind of done this myself while running my parents’ Chinese takeaway, scribbling descriptive notes on their order because I have a huge tendency to forget which order belongs to which customer. I’ve even done it when there’s only one customer – after all, another one will inevitably walk in and I’ll get all confused.

I’m not so sure I’ve gone as far as just describing someone in terms of their race, but there have been other unflattering descriptions such as baldy, NHS glasses etc. But if I went to a restaurant, and saw that scribbled on my order was “fat balding Chinese man”, I’d be a tad put out to say the least.

It’s certainly racism in the sense of discrimination against or antagonism towards other races, but there are probably bigger battles to fight. Like the woman at Question Time taking Jack Straw to task over African-Caribbean versus Afro-Caribbean while one of Britain’s biggest bigots sits on a panel next to Jack Straw. And then there’s the controversy in China over a “Chinese Idol” contestant who’s half-Chinese, half-black…

Ooooh it’s complicated. But I’d rather we just end up dealing with people based on whether they’re nice to us or not…

Mirrored from almost witty.

 The usual melange of the serious, the frivolous and the kinky. These are the top ten most read stories on the Independent website last week.